Benchmark Campaigns

Since 2010, Focus Infocom has conducted yearly Germany-wide benchmark tests together with its media partner CHIP/CHIP Online, Germany's leading technology print magazine and online portal. From the beginning, these benchmark tests have been widely acclaimed for their independence, professionalism and scope.

The latest benchmark performed in 2013 covered a route of 8,400 km by car plus an additional route of 6,000 km by train in urban and rural areas. The drive test routes were backed by extensive walk tests in the inner cities of some of the largest German towns.

The benchmark aimed to map its test strategies and patterns to actual user behavior, i.e. web browsing, watching videos, uploading and downloading files and making calls. The service tests covered both data and telephony including speech quality according to PESQ and POLQA.

The concept of these tests is currently being exported to other countries, starting with Italy and Corriere della Sera as a media partner. The results of these tests were published in CorrierEconomia on March 22,2014, page 26.

Route of Italian Benchmark Test 2014

The Italian benchmark test was conducted by the Istituto Tedesco Qualità Finanza di Monaco in collaboration with Net Check GmbH, a Berlin-based measurement service provider, and Focus Infocom GmbH, who provided the network measurement equipment. The measurement tools included Focus Infocom's brand-new XGMA Smartphone measurement backpack equipped with four smartphones.

The campaign covered a route of 3,000 km from the north to the south of Italy, 2,400 km by car and 600 km by train. Additionally, walk tests were performed in seven of the most important Italian cities along the route.

The test - like its German counterpart - aimed to approach actual customer behavior as much as possible. The field technicians collected QoS data from 5,300 phone calls and 43,000 data transactions during two work weeks towards the end of 2013. The data transactions reflected typical user actions on smartphones like web browsing, up- and download of data, and YouTube™ video streaming.

The final overall results of the benchmark were based on both the voice and data results of the four main Italian operators (3 Italia, Tim, Vodafone and Wind) with a ratio of 40 per cent for voice connections and 60 per cent for data connections. While the test had a clear overall winner, all of the operators fared well in the test even if all showed some problems.

If you want to know more, download the original article here.

In 2013, Focus Infocom performed another benchmark campaign in Austria together with futurezone as media partner and Breuer Nachrichtentechnik as measurement service provider. The motivation behind this benchmark was the wish to establish a "second opinion" benchmark in Austria that was also a welcome opportunity to present Focus Infocom products in another benchmark context. This benchmark also had another focus than the CHIP benchmark in Germany.

For worldwide distributors who want to partner with Focus Infocom and a media company, such benchmark tests provide an excellent opportunity to publicize the Focus Infocom brand in their region.